There was a very detailed two page article in The Times last week about the developments in warships worldwide. It began by asking `What was the most notable naval event for Britain so far this year?' The author said those who replied with `HMS Queen Elizabeth' were wrong - the right answer is the progress of a destroyer, a frigate and an auxiliary vessel up the English Channel in July and onwards to the Baltic sea. The significance was threefold: they were Chinese warships on their way to joint exercises with the Russian navy, it's the first time Chinese warships have passed through the English Channel, and it's also the first time they've entered the Atlantic Ocean. The article was a sobering account of how the Western nations are reducing their naval power while the Eastern ones are increasing theirs. Lots of facts and figures. The US navy has declined dramatically but is still the largest. China and Russia are catching up, while India is racing up behind to catch them. European warships are dwindling in number. The biggest surprise perhaps is that smaller Asian nations such as Vietnam and Pakistan are building submarines - they've realised that carriers are going to be of little use in the future and they can't afford them anyway. But subs give them invisible power. The reason the carriers are going to join the dinosaurs is the development of powerful long-range missiles fired from land bases that can sink carriers 1000 miles out at sea. Many areas will become no-go for carriers - for example the Mediterranean (already dangerous for them), the Baltic, the Gulf, the South China Sea and many coastlines.

I agree with the Russian Admiral(?) who described the new carrier as a splendid target for an attack..... I reckon he was right. One accurately placed bomb or missile and it's Good Night Vienna. For God's sake, we found that out with battleships in WW2. What sank the Bismark? An old biplane, hopelessly out of date even then, and one Great War era torpedo. Go figure!

Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net

"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!

Isn't it amazing that an otherwise well managed vessel with highly skilled crew can be working on default passwords...... Bit like a computer system that ignores security updates...... First thing I do every morning is activate updates, I don't wait for it to act automatically, takes ten seconds......

Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net

"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!

I bought a small book secondhand for a couple of pounds and it shows photos with brief captions of some of the ships that were wrecked around Lands End since the late 1800s. It's interesting how sometimes you look at the photo and wonder how it could have happened. One showed a steamship with its bows on the rocks of the Longships Lighthouse. Either there must have been catastrophic mechanical failure or the crew were all asleep. One photo show a ship wrecked broadside on to rocky beach and with another smaller ship along its outer side. At first it looks like the small one came to the rescue but the truth is that the small ship was wrecked a few weeks after the first and coincidentally ended up alongside. Another series of photos shows wrecks of big steamships in a specific isolated cove over some years. But the last photo shows the cove empty. The wrecks hadn't been salvaged because the cliffs and the rocky reefs were too dangerous but every sign of the ships has gone, swallowed by the sea.

Tiz, I was once on the small Calmac ferry Loch Mor (LINK) on the Small Isles service in a force ten gale and wondered at the time how the hell the captain could see where we were going in broad day light. An interesting experience.... The sea is so powerful nothing surprises me.

The Loch Mor off Eigg. We were on the Eigg fly boat, the one approaching the vessel is the Muck fly boat.

Stanley Challenger Graham
Stanley's View
scg1936 at talktalk.net

"Beware of certitude" (Jimmy Reid)
The floggings will continue until morale improves!

The National Museum - Royal Navy (Portsmouth) says:
There has been a huge debate over Nelson's words to Captain Hardy. However, the late Dr Colin White, a renown Nelson scholar and former Director of this Museum, had researched this subject and made the following conclusions:
"There is little explanation required for the words as there were at least three eye-witness accounts that record that Nelson did actually ask Hardy to kiss him. These witnesses were: Surgeon William Beatty, Chaplain Alexander Scott and Purser Walter Burke. These three are portrayed in the painting Death of Nelson by Arthur Devis, considered to be the most authentic (the nearest thing to a photograph of the occasion) and they can be seen within inches of the dying Admiral and would, therefore, have heard what was said. On normal occasions, it could be assumed that one witness might be mistaken, but when three independent accounts agree, there is little room for doubt over what was said.
Beatty also records that Hardy not only kissed Nelson once, but twice - first on the cheek, then stood up, looked down at his dying Leader and friend, reluctant to leave him. He then bent down again and kissed him on the forehead. Nelson was sinking fast by then and could not see clearly. He asked: "Who is that?" to which came the reply "It is Hardy". Nelson replied "God bless you, Hardy"
It was a very moving and poignant moment. It was consistent with Nelson's affectionate character that he should ask, in the darkness of impending death, for a gesture of tenderness from his closest professional associate and probably his closest male friend. LINK